The elves seen in Christmas Town have a humanoid appearance with a doll-like aspect. They are shown to wear hats of different colors as well as several types of clothes whose colors can vary. The clothing colors of the elves' can consist of green, red, or white clothes respectively as well as the different cloth types they wear.
During the musical number "What's This?", three elves are first seen holding music sheets singing along in chorus, consisting of two lanky elves and one who is bigger than the two standing on a sleigh pushed by a penguin passing by Jack Skellington who is disguised as a snowman. Three more elves riding on a wind-up polar bear pass by, just before Jack jumps out of the snowman and lands on a lamppost, seeing elves doing a snowball fight. Behind Jack is another room depicting an elf couple - the elf in green pajamas being kissed by a female elf while an elderly elf reads a story to two other elves with a penguin sleeping on a pillow. Jack then sees two more elves decorating a Christmas tree and then lighting up just before arriving at another elf house where he sees several of them asleep. Jack suddenly sneaks into the house and sees another bed with five elves sleeping together and as he improvises on pretending to sleep like them, the elf on the right side on the bed wakes up after feeling Jack. Later, silhouettes of elves are then seen getting ready for Christmas while Jack continues exploring the snowscape, but not before he accidentally hits an archway of Christmas Town.
During the "Making Christmas" sequence, an elf supervisor holding his clipboard is seen observing another elf getting the rocking horses perfectly ready while another one builds more rocking horses to get them ready. Elsewhere, three more elves use sewing machines to make teddy bears following the instructions of how to make them. A baker elf is seen using a device to roll on the dough to instantly make gingerbread men while another one places a log in a fireplace, just before cutting to the scene of Dr. Finkelstein in Halloween Town preparing the Skeletal Reindeer for Jack. Later, more elves are seen polishing Santa Claus' sleigh while getting the reindeer ready. Another elf is seen pushing the clown figures of the jack-in-the-boxes, which then cuts to the scene of the Clown with the Tear-Away Face making Halloween-themed jack-in-the-boxes. Later, elves are then seen filling stockings depicting presents, gingerbread men, and candy canes on them just as more elves get Santa's sleigh ready using a stocking of toys being instructed by a foreman. They do not appear again afterwards, even after Jack saved Santa from Oogie Boogie.
Other appearances[]
Emoticon versions of the elves appear in the Nightmare Before Christmas installment of the As Told by Emoji series. They briefly appear in the scene of Jack exploring Christmas Town - consisting an elf couple kissing and a silhouette of an elf. Something original in the post-credits of the installment is a scene of four elves seeing the Easter Bunny arriving at Christmas Town, where one of them places a Santa hat on his head, much to the Bunny's disappointment.
The elves appear as non-playable characters in Oogie's Revenge in the Christmas Town area. Unlike in the film itself, the elves are heard talking in the game. When Jack approaches a green elf, he informs him that the Christmas tree is ruined, prompting him to find the authentic Christmas decorations as a request from him. Upon finding the missing decorations, the elf congratulates Jack that the Christmas tree will be ready for Christmas. Later when Oogie Boogie arrives, a green elf and red elf approach Jack who are worried that Oogie has captured Santa Claus again placing him on a rope while some trains are about to cut the rope. The player must stop the trains from cutting the rope to which upon doing so, Jack manages to foil Oogie's plans. Later, the red elf informs Jack that he slipped the Halloween-themed present he gave him into Santa's sleigh, which would help him stop Oogie Boogie from ruining Christmas, which he manages to do so.
The elves also appear as non-playable characters in Kingdom Hearts II in the Christmas Town area in the Halloween Town world. When Sora talks to one of the elves, he asks him if he is here to contribute to the factory, giving him the option to make presents, which presents him to a mini-game called "Gift Wrapping" where the player must use a cannon to fire toys to fill gift boxes within a time-limit. Unlike in the film where they had no dialogues, one of them does speak to Sora via text bubble when approached to.
Elves also appeared as obstacles in the Nightmare Before Christmas hub seen in open road sections of the discontinued game, which the player had to avoid. In addition to these, a singular elf also appeared as a playable character, which depicts him holding a song sheet. As the elf himself is a secret character not available to obtain from the Prize Machine, the player had to collect at least thirty presents when playing as Santa Claus in order to unlock him.
Printed material[]
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey[]
The elves also appear in the manga series inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas. The manga also includes a large elf known as the Head Elf serving as the upper management of the elves. The Head Elf shows a strict personality to the working elves, commanding them to be more productive in making toys, which the elves follow his order.
Trivia[]
Despite their small amount of screen time, the elves occasionally appear in merchandise inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, making them recognizable characters besides the citizens of Halloween Town such as appearing in the form of toys or in collectible trading cards.
In The Nightmare Before Christmas Trading Card Game, some of the elves were given names[1]:
Barry
Chucky
Eddy
Iggy
Nelly
Pauly
Suzy
Timmy
According to Henry Selick in the audio commentary on the DVD releases of The Nightmare Before Christmas, the film's production team had to find a way to match the lighting effects with some strong shadows in the factory, especially in regards to the fireplace the elves were using in the gingerbread section of the factory.[2]
